Status and Active Effect

This is a very complex subject that implies many table and which is related to many other elements like special attacks, Spells, Item Abilities, Character Skills, etc.

The game will keep track of active effects, which are modifications to the character that remains for a certain amount of time. Some will be time based other will expire on a condition.

What is the difference between a "Status Effect" like poisoned, blind, paralysed, etc, and an "Active Effect" like Enchanted Weapons or Immolation? Programatically, there is little differences, and there is little reasons to split them apart. But the main differences will be theses:

Status effect has/are:

Rule modification effect: like cannot dodge, mistarget, cannot act, etc. They generally imply something that needs to be dealt with rapidly. On the other hand, active effects, only stack up stats.

Curable: with spells and items. They belong to a category.

Both are considered the same but status are normally curable effect. There are additional complex situation given by item active effects and Maze area effects. They both need to keep track of the source, so that if the source dissapear (get out of an area, or unequip the item, the effect dissapear). Those effects are currently not implemented.

Duration and Expiration

Considering that I want expeditions spells to have a duration, I am forced to add a duration to active effects which means a number of steps or combat turns before the effect expires. But not all effects will have duration.

Most effects will need a special condition for the effect to end. So Effects needs to ends when a specific step is reached in the game. Most condition includes the previous condition. For example, end of battle will include end of combat turn and disturbed. Here are the following options

End of turn (1): At the end of a combat turn, the effect exipires

Disturbed (2): Removed when the target is attacked or slap (ex: sleep), or at end of combat

End of Combat (3) : Cured at the end of the battle.

Exit/Rest (4): When the party exit the dungeon or rest in areas designed for it.

Permanent (5): The effect is permanent, only curing or killing the character will remove the status effect. There could be some status effect that last even after death, that would be very nasty.

Some effect will be able to have a time limit. This would allow weaker status and condition early in the game. For example, a poison that expires after a certain number of turns. Some effect could have both, a condition and a time limit. Which ever is reached first will make the effect dissapear.

Conditions

Conditions are effects that break some rules of the game which of course require unique piece of code. They mainly affect only battle, so if you have have half a party paralyzed and you will still be able to walk (Don't ask how). Here are the common status effects reused by many active effects. Combinations of multiple status are possible:

Note: Even if I specify "character" those effects can also target monsters.

Disable Target (Dta): The player does not chose the target of action

Disable Actions (Dac): The player does not chose the character actions.

Disable Spell Casting (Dsp): All spell casting skills are disabled.

Disable Skill (Dsk): Disable any other skill characters can have.

Random Target (Rdt): A target is selected randomly to replace the original one, Friends are included.

Random Action (Rda): An action is selected randomly to replace the original one.

Random Friend (Rdf): The target will be a random friend.

Random Insane (Rdi): Target actions can be replaced by very odd behavior like signing

Reduce Damage (Rdm): All damage performed by the character is reduced by 75%.

Reduce Magick Damage (Rmd): Magickal damage performed by the character is reduced by 75%.

The conditions below are similar except that they do not occur each round but rather 50% of the time.

Irregular Disable Targeting (Idt)

Irregular Disable Action (Ida)

Irregular Disable Spell (Ids)

Irregular Disable Skill (Idk)

Irregular Random Target (Irt)

Irregular Random Action (Ira)

Irregular Random Friend (Irf)

Irregular Random Insane (Iri)

Irregular Fail Action (Ifa): fail the chosen action.

Irregular Reduce Dmg (Ird)

Irregular Reduce Mdmg (Irm)

Persistant Effects

Those are mostly effects targetting HP and MP. They consist in reducing or increasing the HP or MP each step or round of battle. The persistant effects occur each round, unless it has a modulo value higher than 1. In that case, the modulo value is the number of turns required before it takes effect. So a modulo of 4 will apply the effect each 4 turns.

Stat Modification

This is simply stacking numbers. Any stat can be modified by an active effect, and those effects can change multiple stats at once. The same effect cannot be applied multiple times. For example, you cannot be blinded twice. But the same modifiers from various sources can be stacked. For example, you could be blind and paralysed.

Curability

Certain effect can be cured if they are part of one of the 6 Condition groups: